


after the rain stops

by Emlee_J



Series: Raining Verse [2]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff and Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Insecurity, M/M, set six months after 'while it was raining'
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:22:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26534287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emlee_J/pseuds/Emlee_J
Summary: The kitten swings from Tobio’s wrist, dangling in the breeze.For a moment, everyone is still. Then Hinata’s eyes drop to the kitten, and Tobio starts blabbering.“Okay, I can explain. I was out shopping and she was in the pet shop window even though they don’t sell pets, and they couldn’t find her a home and she was free because she just-“ he gestures wildly at the little monster hanging from his wrist. “Bites people. All the time. But she’s tiny so it doesn’t really hurt all that much and you can’t be mad because youlikecats and she’s sort of a present and-““You went shopping and came home with a kitten,” Hinata interrupts, his eyebrows ticking up.-An extra forwhile it was raining- Hinata and Tobio adopt a new friend... who bites.
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio
Series: Raining Verse [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1906033
Comments: 39
Kudos: 408





	after the rain stops

**Author's Note:**

> i started writing this in march, shortly after i finished while it was raining and then... just got stuck. i opened up the doc several times over these past few months but it still took me a very long time to finish. i'm still a little [vaguely wafts hands] over it but i think i more or less managed to achieve what i was going for.
> 
> anyway!! please enjoy some more cat shenanigans because apparently they're just my thing these days

Tobio stares at his front door with a contemplative scowl.

He needs to think of a way to enter his house without Hinata noticing, so that he can plot his next move before being confronted by his boyfriend.

In his arms, hidden behind the folds of his jacket, the small, warm lump pressed against his chest wiggles and squirms and mewls.

Tobio drops his head with a sigh and peeks down his collar at the impossibly large eyes peeking up at him belonging to the tiny kitten pressed against his t-shirt.

In retrospect, this had been, perhaps, not one of his better ideas.

_One hour ago…_

Tobio stares down at the list in his hands, mouth pursed in thought, mentally ticking off each item.

It’s late summer, and the weather is just tapering off from oppressive, balmy heat to just that side of brisk. Hinata’s still content to wander around in shorts and a t-shirt, because clearly his body temperature is higher than the average human’s, but Tobio is starting to feel the cold, and he shuffles in his jacket as the breeze whistles down the street.

He’s on a shopping run – both for groceries and other necessities. As per his agreement with Hinata (that he still wasn’t overly convinced was fair, but his boyfriend wouldn’t hear any more arguments about it) – he was buying the food. And a selection of other items that they had both been ignoring they needed until they’d racked up quite a list. So along with the weekly shop, Tobio had been darting around town collecting stationary, new towels, batteries, light bulbs and some oil for Hinata’s bike. It was all mounted on said bike in an artful tower, strapped to rack on the back where Hinata’s delivery bag usually went.

It would’ve been a bit easier if Hinata had joined him, but the stupid redhead had let himself fall behind for an important assignment. And Tobio, not willing to take any chances that their volleyball career might be interrupted now that they were both regulars on the college team, had consequently thrown him into their bedroom with his laptop and slammed the door shut.

Then he’d grabbed the slowly lengthening list of necessities they needed from the fridge door and bolted from the house, grabbing Hinata’s bike so that his boyfriend had no option but to stay and work. There weren’t many places he could go on foot that wouldn’t take him almost an hour to get to, and not even Hinata was that keen to procrastinate.

Tobio crumples the list in his hand and stuffs the wad of his paper in his pocket, satisfied that he’s managed to find everything, and mounts the bike.

He’s just about to push off and head for home when, as he raises his head, he comes face to face with the shop window directly opposite. He hadn’t noticed before, when he was looking down at his list and pushing the bike alongside him, but he’s ended up outside of the local pet shop.

The only one in town, it’s small and normally just sells food and toys and other amenities, but today there’s something new in the window.

It’s a small kitten – a tiny, round ball of blurry brown fluff huddled in a small glass cage and looking incredibly sad.

Tobio’s feet move almost instinctively, until he’s crossing the road and is directly in front of the shop, the bike’s chain clicking alongside him as he goes.

Now that he’s closer, he can see the kitten, who is impossibly small and ridiculously fluffy, isn’t brown at all, really. It’s a mix of blacks and browns and oranges, all swirled together into a whip of puffy fur. It’s very pretty, which makes the small sign sellotaped to her cage all the more confusing.

_Free to a good home._

Tobio’s brow furrows. Admittedly, he’s not paid that much attention to the pet shop in the one and a half years he’s lived in this town, and he didn’t even come here with Hinata when he was… _different_. But even so, he can’t remember any occasions where the shop had actual animals for sale. Or to adopt it seems, in this case.

The kitten finally seems to have spotted him in the midst of his musing, and turns huge golden eyes up at him. When they lock with his, the pupils constrict immediately and the tiny thing starts thumping on the glass wall of its cage with a pitiful, miniscule yowl. Its paw is, in contrast to the rest of its body, perfectly, solidly orange. A bit like Hinata’s hair, and the thought sends the corner of his mouth twitching.

There’s another thump and another muffled squeak, and Tobio leans down a little bit so he’s more at eye level with the tiny creature. It sits there in its cage, quiet for all of a second, before its fur starts to puff up even more and it bares its fangs in a tiny hiss that Tobio can’t even hear.

Quirking his eyebrows, Tobio straightens up and tries not to pout. This always seems to happen to him, it’s like animals just don’t… _like_ him or something, always growling or hissing or running away. Maybe it’s his tendency to always frown but he can’t _help_ that! Hunching his shoulders, he tries not to feel too miffed about a tiny kitten hissing at him and almost turns to mount the bike and just leave, when another pitiful cry reaches his ears.

He glances back over to meet the kitten’s eyes, which have gone soft and round again, and whose fur has lost some of its puff. It looks impossibly sad, and Tobio feels his heart twist over painfully in his chest. He holds the golden gaze for a moment or two more before he heaves a deep sigh, and kicks down the bicycle’s stand so he can leave it outside as he heads into the shop.

It’s devoid of customers inside, and it’s just the shopkeeper – an older man with thinning hair and wire-framed glasses – who glances at him from over the newspaper he’s reading from behind the shop counter. The man nods a greeting and goes back to his reading, leaving Tobio in peace to cross the packed aisles and dodge around the bags of food until he’s in front of the small cage with the kitten inside.

It looks up at him, two blobs of gold in amongst the swirling fur, blinks once, and then hisses again, the sound muffled through the glass.

Tobio frowns, a little crease appearing between his brows as his mouth purses in an offended pout.

“You want her?”

Tobio starts and whirls in place to find the shop owner staring at him from over his newspaper, looking somewhat unimpressed. _Not the best way to entice a customer_ , Tobio thinks sourly.

“Do you… normally sell pets?” Tobio queries slowly, dragging his eyes around the shop. Indeed, he can’t see any evidence of any other animals being up for sale – in the present or the past – the aisles and walls stacked up high with food and supplies, not cages.

“No,” the shopkeep grunts. “My daughter’s cat had a litter and that’s the only one we couldn’t shift.”

Tobio’s eyes slide back over to the cage housing the tiny kitten. She’s stopped hissing temporarily, now batting one tiny, incredibly furry paw, against the glass. The pats are so light Tobio can’t even hear any sound. Slowly, he drops into a crouch, folding his large body until he’s eye level with the tiny creature. The kitten stops patting, paw resting on the glass, and stares balefully at him.

A miniscule rubble echoes through the cage – a miniature growl.

“Why?” Tobio asks the shop keeper, though he has his suspicions.

There’s a sigh and a rustle as a page is turned in the newspaper. “She bites.”

Tobio tilts his head at the tiny, still growling, kitten and considers. “But she’s so _small,”_ he protests, confused. He could understand why biting wouldn’t be exactly be _desirable_ in a new pet, but… the little thing was so tiny surely it wouldn’t even be noticeable.

Another sigh and the shopkeep waves at the cage. “Be my guest,” he invites, dismissive, and then goes back to his newspaper, seemingly having lost interest.

Frown deepening, Tobio stands up again and undoes the latch holding the lid of the glass cage closed. The kitten inside perks up immediately, trying to scrabble up the glass and squeaking. Tobio reaches in with one large hand and stops, just millimetres from the kitten’s face.

He, historically, doesn’t have much luck with animals.

They often avoided him – from strays to owned pets, they always seemed to shy away from his fingers. He’s always figured it’s his gloomy exterior (which Hinata insists isn’t _that_ bad, but Tobio suspects he may be trying to placate him) and just being rather… big, in general.

So he stares down at this tiny, fearless little kitten, who’s straining up to touch her miniscule, soft black nose against his fingertip, and feels his heart crack.

He reaches in a little further, just enough that the pads of his fingers brush over the soft fluff on top of her head and –

“Ow!”

“I told you, she bites,” the shop keeper says without looking up from his newspaper, as Tobio draws his hand back with a furious scowl.

The kitten didn’t break the skin, but her tiny needle teeth were wicked sharp, and the pinpricks of pain across his index finger were enough to make him jump in surprise.

“It’s not _that_ bad,” Tobio protests, more out of pride than anything else. He glares down at the kitten. He swears the kitten glares back.

With determination (and completely forgetting his hands were a rather valuable volleyball asset), Tobio reaches back in. The kitten launches immediately, nipping at his fingers and batting at his knuckles with soft little growls. “Stop that,” he admonishes grumpily, hunching his shoulders. The little bites still make him jolt, but they’re not overly painful, and he sticks his tongue out in careful concentration until he manages to cup her small furry body between his palms.

The little kitten wrestles in his grasp – wiggling her small body and nipping at his wrists and the meat of his hands by his thumbs. But her teeth are too small and Tobio’s skin too thick, and it doesn’t really do anything. Eventually she stops, rumbling gently and baring her miniature fangs as Tobio slowly raises her out of her glass cage.

“Sorry, I don’t think you like me very much,” Tobio apologises.

“She doesn’t like anyone,” the shopkeep grumbles. Tobio ignores him.

The kitten sits in his hands and continues to growl, two tiny triangular ears folded down in protest as she squints at him. She weighs almost nothing in his hands, just a warm mass of fluff that vibrates against his skin.

“Speaking from experience,” Tobio whispers, keeping his voice hushed in case the owner hears and thinks he’s a bit weird, “if you’re nice to people they give you things.”

Not that he was particularly trusting of course, back- well. Back _then._

He can remember still, the panic and the terror, of suddenly finding himself completely helpless on four legs with seemingly no way of returning to normal. Of wandering the streets and being avoided by people, his large frame putting them off even as a cat. Of fishing through bins and looking for scraps and avoiding brooms from disgruntled locals.

Of a young man who opened his door and offered him milk, and then did it again the next day without protest when Tobio stared up at him hopefully, his stomach growling in a wishful plea.

Tobio blinks back to the present, tries to shake his head of the memories of what had happened all those months ago, but they don’t quite shift. They linger, at the edges of his thoughts, a playback reel of all the events of that rainy spring.

A soft noise catches his attention and he refocuses on the warmth in his hands. The kitten has, miraculously, stopped growling. Now sitting quietly and pensively, sometimes emitting a gentle chirp as she shifts between his palms.

“Have you finished?” Tobio asks, raising an eyebrow at her.

The kitten blinks at him, and bites him on the thumb.

Tobio sighs and rolls his eyes to the ceiling.

“She seems fond of you,” the shop keeper pipes up beside him, and Tobio nearly drops the kitten in his shock. He hadn’t noticed the other man get up and come towards him at all. “You in the market for a kitten?”

“She bites,” Tobio points out, throwing the man’s words back at him as the kitten lives up to her name and chews on his knuckle. She’s resumed growling again.

“She’s teething,” the man says flippantly. “And she’s free. And… tell you what, you take her, and I’ll take a third off anything you want to buy for her too. Special discount.”

Tobio opens his mouth to say he _can’t_ take her – he’s a busy college student who’s just about _not_ failing this time around, with a promising career in volleyball and he really doesn’t have _time_ to look after a cat-

But _Hinata_ did. Hinata balanced volleyball, returning to school, a job and a household _and_ had taken him in without much quibble at all.

Tobio’s heart scrunches itself into a guilty ball in his chest as he considers. It still feels a little weird – having appeared in his boyfriend’s life as a cat – but the sentiment was still true. His excuses are a little feeble, considering what Hinata did for him. He sighs, the air puffing out between his pursed lips, as he watches the kitten continue to gnaw ineffectively at his fingers.

Part of him, deep down inside where secrets were locked up tight, wondered still if Hinata still wished he had a cat, and not a boyfriend. That the boyfriend was nice, and he certainly did like Tobio (he was fairly sure), but he had really wanted a cat for a companion instead. And, well, Tobio had kind of taken the cat away hadn’t he?

He regards the kitten in his hands that’s alternating between nibbling on his fingers and rasping her impossibly tiny tongue across his skin. At her soft growls and her pissed off face and feels his heart scrunch into a tighter ball. She’s all alone and angry and maybe Tobio is projecting just a little too much but it’s- he _gets it._

And he knows Hinata gets it too.

Tobio hangs his head in resignation and lifts the kitten a little higher. The movement jogs her chewing and she stops to stumble across his palms and hiss at him, her already puffy fur sticking out a little straighter in her indignation.

“You _cannot_ bite Hinata,” Tobio warns, in his best stern voice. The kitten blows a spit bubble at him.

The shopkeeper beams with glee and tries to direct him to the cat supplies.

“No thanks, we have stuff,” Tobio mumbles, feeling entirely too out of sorts to properly pay attention to the man’s wares anyway. His head is still doing a little spin at the decision he has just made. He ends up grabbing a small soft mouse toy for the kitten to sink her vicious little teeth into and nods and hums his way out of the shop with the shopkeep chasing after him for more sales.

The man shuts the door behind him as Tobio steps back out into the street - his face a strange mix between grouchy and relieved. Well, Tobio may not have made him any money, but he had taken the kitten off his hands, he supposes.

There’s a rustle of movement against his chest where he had pressed the small bundle of fur and he peeks down. Two golden eyes peek back up at him and squint. The fabric of his shirt feels just a little damper as she takes to attacking his clothes instead. Lips pursing in a pout, Tobio nudges her new toy towards her as he makes his way back to the bike laden with shopping. He won’t be able to ride it home now, but hopefully the toy will keep the kitten occupied enough that he won’t have to worry about dropping her as he pushes it along one-handed.

She ends up spitting it out onto the street halfway home.

* * *

Tobio takes a deep breath, and steps through the door of his house, praying fervently that Hinata is still in the bedroom working on his assignment and therefore occupied.

There is no such luck to be found. Their bedroom door is wide open and the sound of clacking keyboard keys can definitely not be heard. Instead, the muffled sound of humming floats down the hall from the kitchen, accompanied by what sounds like the kettle gurgling. Figures. Hinata essentially lived off of tea.

Tobio rearranges the kitten where she’s pressed up against his chest under his jacket and shuffles down the hallway. Maybe he can he slip into the spare room and deposit her there temporarily unnoticed while he racks his brain for some sort of excuse. He had come up with absolutely nothing on the way home, his mind simply ping-ponging from remembering how happy Hinata was with a cat and trying to forget how _he_ was that cat.

He manages to make it to the spare room’s front door, nudges it open with his foot, when the kitten chooses that particular moment to sate her bloodthirst and sink her fangs into a particularly sensitive part of his wrist.

Tobio hisses sharply through his teeth and bites his tongue in an effort to keep in the curses that threaten to burst forth. With his free hand, he fumbles to open his jacket and grab – _gently_ – at the kitten’s scruff to pull ever-so-slightly.

“Letgoletgo _letgo_ -“ he mutters desperately under his breath. Her teeth haven’t quite managed to puncture the skin, but they’re close to it – pressing sharply against a spot that makes his eyes water with the sting.

“Tobio?”

Tobio swears, lets go of the scruff, jumps three feet in the air (a personal best, coach would be proud) and whirls around to come face to face with Hinata, heart thudding. His boyfriend’s face falls from a sunny smile to a confused frown, before a muffled, miniature growl captures his attention.

The kitten swings from Tobio’s wrist, dangling in the breeze.

For a moment, everyone is still.

Then Hinata’s eyes drop to the kitten, and Tobio starts blabbering.

“Okay, I can explain. I was out shopping and she was in the pet shop window even though they don’t sell pets, and they couldn’t find her a home and she was free because she just-“ he gestures wildly at the little monster hanging from his wrist. “Bites people. All the time. But she’s tiny so it doesn’t really hurt all that much and you can’t be mad because you _like_ cats and she’s sort of a present and-“

“You went shopping and came home with a kitten,” Hinata interrupts, his eyebrows ticking up.

Tobio dithers. Technically it was an accurate summation. “… Yes,” he confirms, croaky. “I did get the shopping, though,” he adds, hoping that will earn him some points, at least.

He searches his boyfriend’s face desperately for some sort of clue but all he finds is quiet pondering. It sends his pulse skyrocketing harder than it had been before and he chews on his lip, trying not to fidget too obviously. Was Hinata mad? He cannot tell.

Hinata opts not to say anything further, just silently reaches out until his hands are cupping the kitten’s fluffy bottom and supporting her weight. Two golden eyes swivel to stare at him, her growling abruptly cut off.

“Let go of Tobio,” Hinata coaxes, bouncing her a little.

Her ears flick in indignation, but then, she lets go, dropping neatly into Hinata’s palms.

Tobio swears a little with relief and rubs at his wrist, trying to soothe away the stinging ache. There’s no blood, but there are four deep little indents that he suspects might bruise, and he can’t help squint at the kitten in betrayal.

“She’s so small,” Hinata says, hushed and awed, as he lifts the kitten up to his eyes, eyes wide and round.

“Ummm, careful…” Tobio warns, as Hinata brings the kitten dangerously close to his face. If his boyfriend gets scratched or bitten on the nose, Tobio will not be held liable for his actions. (Which will be laughing, probably.)

The kitten leans forward, sniffs delicately at Hinata’s nose, before rearing back, her ears flattening. Little growls fill the air again.

“Friendly,” Hinata observes, but it’s with a smile, and he glances up at Tobio with a soft expression on his face, his eyes pudding warm. It helps to ease some of the anxiety knotting up Tobio’s spine and he relaxes a little, feeling his shoulders drop down from where they had been hovering up by his ears.

“She’s a horror,” Tobio admits with a soft sigh. Still, she hadn’t actually chomped on Hinata yet, so maybe there was some hope.

Hinata hums in response and returns his gaze back to the kitten in his hands, rearranging her weight until she was settled neatly in one palm. He strokes one fingertip over her small head and jerks it back almost instantly when she snaps like a viper, chuckling under his breath. “She is, isn’t she?” He confirms, seemingly unbothered by the tiny ball of anger sitting in his hand, smiling down at her as if she was purring sweetly rather than opening her tiny little mouth to hiss instead.

“We can just look after her, for a bit,” Tobio blurts out, and Hinata’s curious brown eyes swivel up to meet his. He knows his boyfriend likes cats, he knows his boyfriend misses having one, but he doesn’t know if Hinata was actually willing to take on another one so soon – a problem kitten at that – and he doesn’t want to-

“Do you want a cat?” Hinata interrupts, before Tobio can spiral any further. His gaze is piercing.

“I-“ Tobio starts, and pauses.

He’s never really given it that much thought before, he supposes. He’s always liked animals, even if animals have never liked _him_ , but the thought of owning a pet had never really crossed his mind. He was just… too focused on volleyball to think about it.

Tobio stares down at the kitten in Hinata’s hand, into her very big eyes and angry little face, and feels his heart twinge. She’s small and pissed off and all on her own and Tobio is probably projecting too much but he _likes_ her. She reminds him of himself, not so long ago.

“I want this one,” he admits, before he can stop himself.

Hinata laughs, surprisingly, and Tobio squints a little at him.

“It’s not weird for you?” Hinata asks, unexpectedly, and Tobio tilts his head, still squinting.

“Considering your… _history,”_ Hinata elaborates.

“… Oh. No,” Tobio replies, after a moment’s pause. Should he be bothered? His boyfriend stares at him for a long moment, as if waiting for something further, and Tobio stares back impassively, a little confused.

Hinata holds his gaze for a bit longer, before humming softly under his breath and returning his attention back onto the kitten in his hand, looking pensive.

“You’ve missed having a cat,” Tobio points out, trying not to sound like he’s pushing too hard.

Hinata starts, clearly surprised. The little churn of anxiety returns in Tobio’s stomach. “Have I?” He asks, sounding a little bewildered, like this was news to him.

“Yes?” Tobio replies, giving Hinata a strange look. Perhaps Hinata doesn’t realise it, but Tobio has noticed the wistful looks he gives the milk in the fridge and that spot in the closet where he used to sleep when he thinks Tobio isn’t looking. It isn’t often, but Tobio still catches those sighs and soft smiles and feels a little knot in his chest each time.

Maybe Hinata just isn’t ready to admit it out loud, but Tobio _knows_ he misses having a cat in his house. Maybe it was because it - _he -_ was the first companion Hinata had had in so long, but the loss is still there. Even with Tobio as he is now, he just- he can feel it, that little hole Hinata probably doesn’t want to admit is even there.

There’s another long moment where Hinata just looks at him, all searching brown eyes and a thoughtful face, and Tobio does his best to keep his face and breathing even. Then Hinata sighs, bounces the kitten in his hands and lets a bright grin spread over his face.

“Good thing I kept all that cat stuff huh?”

Tobio blows out a breath discreetly and grunts his agreement, reaching out with a finger to try and stroke the little kitten again. Two little ears flatten and he folds his finger away just in time before she can sink her teeth into it.

“You… don’t think she’s another one of Tsukishima’s, uhh, _good deeds_ , do you?” Hinata asks hesitantly as the kitten starts growling anew at Tobio’s still hovering hand.

“What did I say about mentioning that name in this house?” Tobio grumbles, his brow crumpling into a deep scowl. “And no, she can’t be – she’s so puny, wouldn’t she be like… a young child or something?”

The sentence hangs in the air and he and Hinata share an equally horrified look before they shudder in unison and chase the thought from their minds.

The kitten shifts her weight between them, squinting her eyes and bearing her fangs at nothing in particular.

* * *

“What about Mikasa?”

“Hinata, no.”

Hinata glares at him from his spot on the sofa. “Why not?”

“Because Molten is better,” Tobio says simply (because obviously) and he dodges the little kick his boyfriend aims at his shins, shifting in his own spot on the sofa. _“And_ it’s a terrible name.”

“It’s _volleyball,”_ Hinata defends indignantly, as though Tobio as committed a great sin.

Which, admittedly, maybe Tobio had. He sends a little thought of apology to the great sport that governs his everyday life before returning to the matter at hand. “We can’t name her after a volleyball brand, that’s weird.”

Hinata sulks for a solid minute before he relents. “Fine.” He eyes their new addition where she rolls around on the floor by their feet, in the process of destroying a sock and occasionally disappearing underneath the kotatsu. “Nipper. Nasher. Chomper.”

 _“No,”_ Tobio protests, with even more force than before. He leans down and reaches out to tickle the kitten behind her ears when she rolly-pollies close to him. She blinks at him, promptly bites him on the finger, and resumes trying to stuff as much of the sock back into her mouth while kicking at it vigorously with her back feet. “She’ll grow out of it,” he says quietly, and tries not to scowl too hard when Hinata raises a disbelieving eyebrow.

The kitten has been with them for two days now, and Hinata has mostly responded to her… _aggressive tendencies_ with good humour, tolerating her nips and giggling at her pathetic attempts at being ferocious. Tobio had watched every interaction with a ball of anxiety in his stomach, wondering if Hinata was going to lose his temper at any point.

But, so far, Hinata had been incredibly tolerant, even snickering as he pokes his bare toes into the kitten’s podgy tummy gently when she rolls back into view and getting an unco-ordinated swipe for his efforts.

“I don’t know…” Hinata says, still sounding amused, as he folds over to scoop the kitten and her sock victim up together, carefully folding his fingers away so she couldn’t bite them. “Maybe she’ll always be grumpy.”

He doesn’t sound mad – if anything he sounds nonchalant – but the anxiety ball rolls and tumbles and grows just a little bit bigger in Tobio’s belly. Because _he_ is grumpy, he knows. _He’s_ prone to pouting and sulking and gets frustrated quicker than he really ought to. Hinata never really seems to care, weathers any of Tobio’s bad moods with ease, but Tobio still… worries.

It’s not like people haven’t gotten fed up before, after all.

“Are you feeling better now? Got all your rage out?”

Hinata’s voice breaks him out of his storm cloud, and Tobio refocuses to see his boyfriend cooing at the kitten, who sits in his palms quietly, wrapped up in the sock. Slowly, the little thing untangles herself, clambering over the fabric with clumsy feet until she sits on it and stares up at Hinata almost politely, like she’s waiting for something.

“We need to give you a name,” Hinata goes on to say, still in that gentle, soft tone that makes Tobio’s heart flip over. “And then we need to get you to a vet.”

Tobio’s heart flips again for a decidedly different reason.

“I’m sorry,” he says solemnly to the kitten, who ignores him. “It was his idea, not mine.”

“Tobio, you really need to let your hatred of the vets go, they only _scanned_ you-“

Tobio doesn’t rise to this bait, and reaches out with one finger to stroke the back of the kitten’s head gently. She lets him, but only because she didn’t spot him, and the touch makes her jolt violently, almost toppling from Hinata’s palms.

She blinks her huge, golden eyes, pupils widening into saucers. And then, all at once, she puffs up. Goes from small and fluffy to small and almost round – a completely spherical ball of brown and orange puff with two eyes peeking out, her tail a tiny bushy feather duster sticking out behind her.

Hinata keeps his composure for all of a second before he cracks up, laughing openly at the ridiculous display. “She’s like a popcorn kernel!” He wheezes, sounding absolutely delighted.

“A… popcorn kernel?”

“Yeah,” Hinata snickers, voice high in his amusement. “Like she just goes _pop!_ You know? One minute she’s fine and the next she poofs up like popcorn in the microwave.”

Tobio’s quiet, a little thoughtful pout pursing his lips as he considers their tiny popped kernel. The kitten’s fur slowly flattens a bit again as she relaxes, and then becomes restless in Hinata’s hands, tumbling gratefully from them when he lowers her back down to the sofa cushions. Tobio watches her start to wrestle with the sock again, and says, “What about Popcorn?”

“Popcorn?”

“Her name,” Tobio elaborates, snagging the end of the sock to pull it around the sofa for the kitten to chase. “Popcorn.”

“Oh!” Hinata tilts his head, thinking it over. He tweaks her tiny tail between his fingers as she gnaws on her sock toy and smiles when the fur puffs. “Cute,” he agrees, “I like it!”

Between them, Popcorn rolls over herself three times with the sock between her paws before she tumbles to a stop against Tobio’s thigh. There, she relinquishes her hold of her fabric victim, settling against the warmth of Tobio’s leg, blinking slowly and sleepily. Carefully, Tobio strokes her head and side with tentative fingertips, feeling a wobbly smile bloom when she lets him with no complaint. She’s always more placid when she’s tired.

“Popcorn?” He says, and gets an ear flick. “Are you going to be sweet or salty?” He asks, in all seriousness.

Popcorn buries her nose in her fluffy paws and Hinata starts laughing again from his side of the sofa.

“What?” Tobio grumps, put out. What did he say?

“Salty or sweet,” Hinata chuckles to himself, before leaning across, careful not to squash the sleeping Popcorn between them, and plants a smooch on Tobio’s temple. “You’re very cute, Tobio.”

Tobio grumbles under his breath and wills the flush that flares up his neck to fade away.

* * *

“Okay,” Tobio sighs deeply, “this can’t continue.”

He glares down at the newly christened Popcorn, who currently burying her fangs into the thick fabric of his best cosy socks, growling with a mouthful of wool. Her teeth are too small to reach his toes beneath, so Tobio feels no fear in lifting his foot to try and shake her off. He wasn’t even provoking her just now – just walking down the hall to get a snack from the kitchen.

Popcorn clings to his sock like a snake, dangling in mid-air for a bit, until gravity takes hold and pulls her rump back down to the floor.

Tobio rolls his eyes at her furious little face. _“You_ wanted to bite,” he points out, before a twinge of regret pulls at his chest.

No, no, he’s not supposed to be losing his patience, he’s supposed to be trying to get Popcorn to soften up so that Hinata will… not get angry.

Feeling a scowl starting to crease his brow, Tobio finishes walking slowly down the hall, dragging his foot a little to encourage Popcorn to chase his sock. She tumbles after him, pouncing after his toes until they reach the kitchen. Then Tobio straightens up and walks normally, effectively ending the game.

Popcorn sits near to the kitchen door, looking equally cross and baffled, and Tobio glances at her apologetically.

“But it’s for a treat,” he tells her, and receives no response.

Until there’s a dish in front of her with warm milk in it, that is.

Tobio stays in place where he was crouched in front of her, feeling a strong sense of déjà vu tug at him as he watches Popcorn sniff the dish of milk tentatively. It’s a little strange, bizarre as it is to think so, to sit here on the other end of the equation – to be the one offering the milk to the shy cat, and not the other way around.

Still, if it had worked before…

Popcorn eventually sates her curiosity of nosing around the ceramic, and eventually sticks her tongue into the milk, her eyes blowing wide before she starts to lap in earnest, milk splattering onto her fur in her enthusiasm.

Tobio feels a tingle of excitement and reaches out to pet her, only to snatch his hand back immediately when she starts to growl warningly.

“So much for softening you up,” he sighs, resting his elbow on his knee and plonking his chin on his hand, watching Popcorn finish her treat from a safe distance.

The next few weeks continue in much the same way.

Tobio plays with her when he can and when she will allow it without getting too pissed off. He sneaks her milk every day without Hinata noticing (his boyfriend can get a little gung-ho on the healthy eating sometimes.) He tries to stroke her fur in places where she can’t whip around so easily to bite him.

She softens, but only by the smallest amount.

“Maybe you should pet her where she would like it,” Hinata suggests one day from the sofa, his laptop balanced on his knees and his feet propped up on the kotatsu.

Tobio glances up at him briefly from his spot on the floor, steadily rubbing the same precise spot on Popcorn’s back that made it too hard for her to twist around to attack him. “She might bite me,” he protests, with a little pout. He’s supposed to be showing Hinata how good of an idea this is, not putting him off.

“Why don’t you try petting her where you liked it?” Hinata says thoughtfully, before blinking off into the middle distance with a strange look on his face. Yeah, that was just a weird a sentence for Hinata to say as it was for him to hear, Tobio is fairly sure.

“You never really _let_ me though,” Hinata grumbles, once he’s composed himself again, turning his attention back to his laptop and stabbing at a couple of keys.

“It was _weird!”_ Tobio protests, though he avoids Hinata’s eyes and tries to rub his index finger behind Popcorn’s ears. Hinata had done that once to him and he did… like it. It was kind of nice as a human too actually, when Hinata ran his fingers through his hair and trailed them past his hairline behind his ears and down towards his neck…

Tobio shivers unwittingly and refocuses on the whisper soft fur on the back of Popcorn’s head. Happily, she doesn’t seem to mind being touched here – simply tilting her head into the pressure as she bats her paw against a small plastic ball.

And it _was_ weird – being stroked as a cat. It felt stupidly nice, like having your hair petted, but just… all over. Tobio probably would’ve been keener on the whole thing if the thought of it being his body being touched wasn’t so off putting. Well. At the time it had been, at least. It was certainly a strange rollercoaster to go on – being unwilling because Hinata was a stranger, then just as he was starting to get comfortable, he started _feeling things_ for him, and then it got weird all over again.

Falling in love as a cat… how ridiculous.

“She likes that,” Hinata pipes up into the silence, breaking Tobio out of his reverie and stopping the silly smile on his face from growing any larger.

Indeed, Popcorn does seem to be pretty content where Tobio is still rubbing her gently between her ears, her little eyelids fluttering gently. Emboldened, and encouraged by Hinata noticing, Tobio trails his thumbs from the feather light fur on her head to the delicate, thin fold of her ear.

It turns out to be just a step too far.

Popcorn twists, lightning quick, and snaps at his fingers. Tobio has just enough time to pull them away before she can nip at his skin.

“Or not!” Hinata laughs, returning his attention to his laptop, his attention diverted again.

“Work with me here,” Tobio hisses to Popcorn, who just narrows her eyes at him.

Hinata can be patient, but he can also lose his temper, and Tobio is far too conscious of it.

He just… _needs_ Popcorn to stay.

She’s small and cute and, most importantly, is a _real_ cat that won’t change, and Tobio needs her here to make Hinata happy. And it wasn’t as though he thought Hinata was _unhappy_ before, exactly, it was just- he worries. Worries that Hinata will get bored, will move on, will want something else.

But Hinata likes cats, and now Tobio has found one that needed them.

It should all be perfect, in theory, if only she wasn’t so… antisocial.

Tobio glares at Popcorn and she glares back until he sighs, giving up the fight. He can do this, he just has to work on it. It’s like setting. You never set the ball right the first time, or please your spikers immediately. It takes work.

He just has to work on Popcorn, that’s all. Bribe her until she was happy, maybe, or just sufficiently distract Hinata enough when she was acting up that he didn’t notice. So he clambers to his feet and shuffles off to the kitchen to see if there’s any scraps he can feed her, just to improve her mood.

“Stop giving her treats! She’ll get fat!” Hinata hollers from the living room while Tobio is rummaging around the fridge.

Caught red-handed, Tobio swings the fridge door shut and thunks his forehead against it with a groan. Great. So much for being sneaky.

But… as he lifts his head, he spots Popcorn tottering into the kitchen after him, her tiny fluffy tail held aloft as she peers up at him hopefully.

“Hinata said no,” Tobio tells her sadly, making sure to name Hinata specifically so that she will know he’s innocent.

Bending down, Tobio scoops her up into his hands. Oddly, even though being stroked often seemed to set off her anger, being picked up was usually okay with Popcorn. She settles into his hands neatly, blinking her huge eyes at him, two spots of bright gold in amongst all the fluff.

“Are you going to behave?” Tobio murmurs to her lowly, bringing her up close.

Popcorn flickers her tiny ears, being launching forwards and biting him on the nose.

Tobio sighs again, the bite not strong enough to really hurt, and puts up with the paws batting at his cheeks for another minute before pulling her away.

For once, she doesn’t seem angry when she comes back into view, her ears up and her eyes bright, her fur staying fluffy instead of bushy. She eyes his hair when she’s far back enough to see it, wiggling her rump around on Tobio’s palms. Then she’s jumping up, biffing her tiny feet against his hair where it lies across his forehead, trying to catch the strands in her mouth.

Tobio lets her, baffled. She’s being surprisingly gentle, no claws or teeth. And as her little game continues, sometimes small, rumbly noises squeak out. Not growls, but something softer. The beginnings of purrs maybe, if she wasn’t so distracted by her game to give them more effort. So Tobio stands very still, and lets her play with his hair.

Progress, maybe.

It’s a good long while before Popcorn eventually runs out of steam and flops back into his hands, and when Tobio lowers his arms, the muscles aching from holding them aloft for so long, it’s to find Hinata staring at them from the doorway, smiling fond and soft.

Tobio’s heart flips happily, and then the moment is ruined by Popcorn biting him on the thumb properly – probably asking to be let down.

Tobio hangs his head in defeat and lets the grumpy little thing down slowly.

Maybe not quite as much progress, perhaps.

* * *

It continues much in the same vein as this, until it all comes to a head one evening, around a month or two after Popcorn had entered their lives.

She was getting better, in small, tiny ways. She didn’t launch for every finger that came her way, the hissing reduced, the growling not quite as loud. Her tolerance level was still at almost zero, but she was… getting better. She allowed Tobio to lift her – even if she did nip sometimes – and she would allow herself to be stroked when she was sleepy. Sometimes, on the very rare occasion, she would act and play like a completely normal kitten, no aggression to be seen.

It’s on one of these occasions that Tobio maybe gets a little too ahead of himself.

They’re on the bed together, Tobio propped up by the headboard with his laptop on knees, trying and failing to finish an assignment while Popcorn rolls around on the bedspread by his feet, playing with the small crow toy Hinata had bought all those months ago.

(The irony is not lost on Tobio.)

Tobio alternates between tapping at his keyboard, glaring at his computer screen, and then getting distracted when Popcorn rolls close to his legs, bumping into them. Eventually, she summersaults herself up to his elbow, the crow toy skittering across the duvet out of her reach. She lies there, back pressed against Tobio’s skin, blinks at her toy, and then lets out a little sigh. Like she’s suddenly exhausted with the effort of playing and is feeling particularly woeful.

Tobio smiles softly, and moves his laptop slowly from his lap to the bedspread beside him. Popcorn’s ears and tail flick but she doesn’t move to scarper. So slowly, he reaches across with the arm Popcorn isn’t currently leaning against, and trails the backs of his fingers across her side, the long, fluffy fur rippling softly.

Popcorn chirrups and whips her head around, the rest of her body still, as she turns golden eyes up at him, her pupils huge and round.

“Hello,” Tobio says.

His kitten blinks, long and slow, and then, miraculously, starts to rumble in an altogether different way.

Tobio sits there in quiet awe, frozen apart from his fingers still stroking soft, puffy fur, as Popcorn lies beside him and starts to purr.

It’s very soft, almost like she’s just breathing heavily, before it starts to build up in volume, getting louder and deeper until her whole tiny body is rumbling gently next to Tobio’s arm.

(Tobio feels a little bit like he might cry, all of a sudden, and has to shake his head to get rid of the stinging in his eyes.)

For a while they both just sit there, Popcorn spread lazily across the duvet, purring in contentment as she’s stroked. As Tobio runs his fingers over her little body, she sometimes shifts and moves, encouraging his fingertips to rub over where she wanted them to.

Emboldened, Tobio gets braver, rubbing his finger pads with more vigour into the whisper soft fur behind her ears and feeling his heart flip when she purrs even louder, her eyes falling closed with bliss. He’s not brave enough to try and tickle her under the chin – too close to her teeth for comfort – so he runs his fingers down, over the large tuft of orangey fur on her chest and between her front legs. Her eyes pop back open then, blinking down at his hand as she parts her feet slowly.

And then, when Tobio’s fingers trail over the curly fur over the round ball of her belly, her purring stops instantly.

Tobio has just enough time to register that this was maybe forbidden territory when Popcorn strikes, hard and fast and with _feeling._

_“Ahh!”_

It’s different from the other bites – maybe it’s because she’s just a bit _larger_ now with bigger teeth and a stronger jaw, or maybe it’s because she was just truly pissed off, but the bite is _hard._ Her needle sharp fangs sink in, deep, into Tobio’s nearest finger and clamp down. It’s only when Tobio shouts, loudly, that she lets go, springing back and skittering away to the edge of the bed, her fur all puffed up again like she’d been electrocuted.

Tobio sucks in air sharply through his teeth and immediately brings his finger to his lips with watering eyes, sucking on the sore digit. Then the sharp tang of copper on his tongue makes him cough and he removes his finger just as fast, feeling his stomach flip at the thin stream of blood slowly dribbling down.

Wide golden eyes stare at him wildly from a mess of fur as Tobio launches from the bed, all but sprinting down the corridor to the bathroom.

“Tobio?”

There’s a bewildered call from Hinata that floats after him – his boyfriend probably spotted him on his dash past the living room – but Tobio ignores it, flinging his hand under the sink. The sharp blast of water makes him jump and hiss, and he scrambles to change the temperature from ice to tepid, but once the sting eases he sighs out a long breath.

With the blood washed away he feels just a bit calmer, if still a bit jittery, and he fumbles around in the cabinet above the sink one-handed, searching for the box of plasters Hinata keeps in there.

“Tobio?”

Tobio grunts with the plaster packaging between his teeth as he wraps one around his ring finger, trying not to wince. At least it’s his ring, and on his left hand. _All_ fingers are important for volleyball, but… being right handed, having a bite on the left would cause the least problems. It should sting for a bit, but hopefully it’ll heal quickly and he won’t have to worry much before their next game-

_“Tobio.”_

_“What?”_ Tobio snaps when Hinata repeats his name for a third time, spitting the plaster packaging out into his palm and tossing it into the bathroom bin. When his boyfriend doesn’t say anything immediately, just stares at him with those piercing brown eyes, Tobio feels his spine go rigid with annoyance and he stalks past, all but shouldering Hinata out of the way as he stomps back down the hall towards the bedroom.

“What happened?” Hinata calls, bewildered, trotting after him with wide eyes.

“Nothing!” Tobio says firmly, swooping into their bedroom and literally flinging himself back onto the mattress, sliding across the sheets with a disgruntled scowl. In the corner of his eye, he spots two eyes peeping at him from between the pillows by the headboard, and he shuffles slower, inching up until he was sitting carefully, making sure not to squash Popcorn between the duck down.

He doesn’t have time to reach for his laptop again before Hinata is clambering onto the bed as well, crawling along until he’s by Tobio’s feet, still staring at him with _those_ eyes.

“Did you get bitten?” Hinata demands, squinting at him.

Straight to the point, of course.

Tobio pouts and chews on the inside of his cheek. Next to him, there’s a muffled squeak and the rustle of fabric, and then Popcorn is nudging her way out of her pillow hidey-hole, making her way across the duvet with clumsy feet. Hinata’s face softens when he spots her, and he wiggles his fingers at her in greeting, before turning back to Tobio. “Well?”

“Yeah, so?” Tobio grunts, glaring at his knees so he doesn’t have to look at kitten or boyfriend. “It’s fine.”

Hinata simply levels him with a gaze that makes Tobio want to squirm. It’s just- sometimes Hinata just _looks_ at him, with those big amber eyes and Tobio feels like everything about himself has been figured out. It’s both disconcerting and comforting in equal measure, and he steels his spine to stop it bending into the hunch he wants to fold himself into.

“Tobio,” Hinata starts softly, _so_ softly, and the steel in Tobio’s spine starts to melt, just a little. “Do you want to tell me what’s going on?”

Tobio runs his thumb over the plaster on his finger and stares down at the bedsheets and contemplates refusing. Hinata would let him, if he really wanted to stay silent, he thinks. His boyfriend can be pushy but not beyond his boundaries. He hates it, sometimes, how Hinata can simply just _know_ there’s something more bothering him then just the surface problem alone. And it’s tempting, it’s _so tempting_ , to just shake his head and push it away and not think about anything for a little while longer.

Then a cold little nose bumps into his bare knee and his gaze swivels from the folds in their bedsheets to Popcorn, who has crawled across the bedding to peer up at him with the widest, biggest eyes. Tobio looks down at her, and feels his will dissolve into mush. He scoops her up with one hand, marvelling at how much heavier and robust she is now, compared the weightless, scrap of a thing that she was only a few weeks ago.

Popcorn sits there politely, blinking up at him without a whisper of a growl and Tobio finds himself blurting, “Please don’t get rid of her.”

There’s a beat of silence, and then Hinata just says, “What?” In a very hushed, confused voice.

“Don’t get rid of her,” Tobio urges, feeling something spark in his chest and encourage the words to fall. “I know she bites and that they’re _real_ bites now but she’s getting better.” He curls his bitten finger close to his palm and ignores the sting. “She’ll stop soon.”

There’s a shift of fur and Popcorn lies down on his big palm, resting her chin neatly on her mismatched paws, and Tobio feels the spark glow a little brighter. He can’t bring himself to look up at Hinata just yet, not ready to look at whatever expression has spread across his boyfriend’s face so he focuses on the folds in the sheets instead and the reassuring weight in his hand.

“Tobio,” Hinata murmurs into the silence, and his hands slide across the sheets to settle on Tobio’s knees. “Hey, look at me.”

Tobio chews on his lip but raises his gaze all the same. Popcorn rolls over on his palm and his heart flips along with her.

“Why would I want to get rid of her?” Hinata asks, but it’s gentle, and some of the nauseous worry bubbling in Tobio’s gut eases. His voice is soaked with confusion, and there’s a little crease between his brows as he looks at Tobio with quiet misunderstanding.

Tobio puffs out a sigh and lowers his hand until Popcorn can tumble from his palm, sprawling across his lap and almost disappearing in the gap between his thighs. “Well, she’s just a bit… mean?” He says, rising the cadence of the last word in question as he thinks about it. But that _isn’t_ the right word, she isn’t _mean_ , she’s just- “Difficult,” He settles for, even though it doesn’t feel quite right either.

“Maybe I like mean,” Hinata says simply, and Tobio risks a glance from his lap where Popcorn was navigating the territory of his thighs to peek up at his boyfriend.

Hinata is smiling, that warm, gooey one that made his eyes look like pudding. “If her being prone to biting every now and then bothered me that much, I wouldn’t have said yes, would I?”

Tobio feels his mouth pop into a pout, warring inside himself. Because Hinata is definitely the sort of person who would take on a problem kitten, but still… he just worries. What if Hinata does get annoyed eventually and wants to rehome her? Then what? What if when she goes Hinata realises what Tobio is like – the human him, the human him who can also be _difficult._

“Tobio.”

Tobio flinches a little at his name again and feels two strong hands rub over his knees and across his thighs soothingly. And when he meets Hinata’s eyes again – still warm, still like pudding – they’ve gone a little darker with concern.

“You’ve been a little off ever since you brought Popcorn home,” Hinata says. “And I _really_ don’t understand why – have you been worried I’ll get mad about it this whole time or something?”

“You like cats,” Tobio finds himself blurting, and Hinata blinks at him, looking confused. Tobio hurries to elaborate before his boyfriend can ask any more questions first. “You like them and she’ll be good when she’s older, probably, and I know she bit me but it’s fine and-“

“You keep saying that,” Hinata interrupts, before Tobio can spiral off. “That I like cats.”

“You _do!”_ Tobio protests.

“I know I do,” Hinata says slowly, “but why do you keep bringing it up?”

Tobio fidgets and feels Popcorn trample over his thighs, apparently creating a little game for herself exploring around his legs. His eyes flick down to her temporarily before raising again to look back at Hinata, whose head is cocked, still looking endearingly baffled. Tobio feels his chest squeeze in tight before it releases again, like a balloon that simply overfilled. “Because you’ve missed having one,” he admits, his tongue feeling clumsy in his mouth.

It doesn’t hurt as much to admit as he thought it would – there’s something about Hinata’s expression that makes it easy to admit, and feels a little of the knot in his stomach loosen once the admission is out.

“I have?” Hinata says, unexpectedly, and Tobio feels the knot tighten all over again.

He goes to open his mouth and reply, but no words come out. They get stuck, somewhere between his ribcage and his throat, strangled off as anxiety thrums deep in his veins. He doesn’t like this – this uncomfortable admittance of the worries that battle in his head. Arguments, fights, bickering… that’s all easy with Hinata. It feels like he could push as much he wanted and what they have would never break, from playfulness up to the very rare moments when true anger sparked.

But this isn’t pushing. It’s sitting on his bed with his boyfriend and trying to explain something so ridiculous without his bones turning into paste.

The hands on his knees leave and Tobio mourns the loss of grounding pressure briefly before Hinata is shuffling a little closer so he can cup his jaw, keeping Tobio’s eyes on him.

Those pudding brown eyes have gotten a little more golden, all of a sudden.

“Tobio,” Hinata says seriously, “do you think I preferred you as a cat?”

All at once, Tobio is once more relieved and infuriated that Hinata just seems to _understand_ sometimes.

He’s tempted to reach up and push Hinata’s hands away irritably, but his boyfriend is giving him that stern sort of look that suggests there would be a tussle if he tried, kitten in Tobio’s lap or no. So Tobio huffs, essentially trapped, and mumbles out a petulant, “do you?”

Hinata looks shocked for all of half second before he’s suddenly clamping down on Tobio’s jaw a little harder, ignoring his muffled _‘oww’_ and giving him a tiny shake. _“No?”_ He says, volume rising in his incredulity. “You are my _boyfriend,_ you idiot!”

Hinata’s hands are starting to creep up to Tobio’s cheeks, causing his mouth to purse uncomfortably, so this time he does reach up to slap his hands away irritably. They don’t go far though, releasing Tobio’s face to clamp down on his shoulders instead, fingers digging into the muscle beneath Tobio’s t-shirt.

Tobio curls his toes tightly as embarrassment and relief war uncomfortably inside him. “But you _did_ like the cat,” he points out, half to make sure and half out of sheer stubbornness.

Red hair bobs close to his vision as Hinata hangs his head suddenly, letting out a deep groan of despair. “Of course I liked the cat!” He all but wails at Tobio’s lap. Popcorn stares up at him from her hidey hole between Tobio’s legs, ears flattening at the volume. “You were adorable! But I was also _really_ lonely and you came at just the right time and yeah, okay, I really did like having a pet but I liked it _better_ when you became a _person!”_ He says all of this in a rush, lifting his head again to affix Tobio with a sharp, fiery stare.

Fixed in place by those eyes, all Tobio can do is wet his lips nervously before letting out a small “… oh.”

Hinata sighs again, but this time it’s fond, and he shuffles as close to Tobio as he can without literally clambering into his lap (because, Tobio assumes, of Popcorn already claiming her place.) He changes his grip on Tobio’s shoulders so it’s more of a hold than a grab and leans in for a kiss. It’s a nice one, one of the ones that makes Tobio’s toes curl.

They sit like that for a minute, Hinata kissing him sweetly until the tension lines ooze away from Tobio’s body and he starts to relax, falling into a warm slouch. He feels Hinata’s hands leave his shoulders slowly, trailing up gently past his neck and jaw and slide into his hair, small calloused fingers dragging across his scalp. It sends a wave of shivers rippling down Tobio’s spine, goose pimples pricking up across his skin.

Then Hinata is pulling away with another little sigh, a breathy one, tugging gently at Tobio’s lower lip with his teeth as he retreats. He leans back just enough so that he can look Tobio in the eye properly without crossing his own and says, simply, “I love you.”

Tobio feels a wobbly smile spread over his face unbidden. “I-“ he starts, before he is cut off.

“And I really do mean _you,”_ Hinata goes on, “and even if I could choose again like, a hundred times over, I would always want to be living with the big grump who makes all my favourite snacks before eating half of them himself and then sets to me whenever I ask. Well, mostly.” He cocks a grin, fast and blinding and Tobio feels so warm and happy he forgets to be annoyed Hinata cut him off earlier.

“And as for _you,”_ Hinata says, to Tobio’s crotch – which causes Tobio’s face to catch on fire before he realises Hinata is directing his voice at Popcorn – “I think Tobio might be seeing too much of himself in you.”

“What do you mean?” Tobio grumps, feeling his smile evaporate in favour of a small disgruntled frown as Hinata waves his fingers close to the kitten in his lap.

Hinata smiles as Popcorn bats at his fingertips, her small puffy tail whirly-gigging away behind her. “She’s grumpy. Isn’t that something else you’re worried about?”

Hinata doesn’t elaborate further and Tobio chomps on the inside of his cheek. The implication is clear – and Hinata has once again read him like a book. But, fortified by Hinata’s earlier declarations, Tobio looks down at his boyfriend, who is not looking at him in favour of playing with the kitten sprawled across his legs. The knot in his stomach has lessened, the tightness in his muscles gone, and he feels looser and calmer. It’s like how he feels in the middle of a game – when everything was falling into place and he sees a little bit clearer than usual.

Sees _Hinata_ just a bit clearer.

So he watches Hinata play with Popcorn, and gabble silly noises, and thinks. Thinks about how he’d told him about all the things that happened in school their first day together after he’d returned. Thinks about how he’d snapped at him in the gym and how Hinata hadn’t, and still never did, gotten truly upset with him. Thinks about how every argument ended positively, one way or another, and even when they did fight it was never about Tobio’s general self.

Hinata would tell him, he thinks, if he was _truly_ fed up - as the last remnants of doubt slip away like rain down the window panes. He’s the most vocal person he’s ever met, of course he would say.

Apparently feeling bold, Hinata reaches out and scoops Popcorn into his palms, who immediately puffs into a ball of orangey brown fluff. He bursts into laughter immediately. “She’s hilarious,” he coos fondly, staring down at the kitten with gooey eyes. “And she _is_ getting better, but also… I really wouldn’t mind if she stayed how she is. And I wouldn’t mind if you stayed the same too,” he adds, raising his eyes to pin Tobio with a pointed stare. “I like how you are just fine.”

Tobio shuffles across the bedspread silently until he is pressed up close to Hinata, and wordlessly reaches out to draw him into his arms. He can’t form any words – his throat has gone horribly tight again – and, right now, he doesn’t think any are needed anyway.

Hinata twists in his grip, just enough that he can wiggle even closer, essentially clambering into Tobio’s lap and tucking his head under his jaw. Tobio holds him close, and lets his boyfriend’s soothing weight ground him until he start to feel calmer again.

Eventually, Hinata peels his head back just enough that he can peer up at him. “Please just… tell me things next time?” He asks, furrowing his brow a little. “And don’t stew on these things for weeks?”

“You’re one to talk,” Tobio snorts, letting his arms fall away from Hinata and planting his hands on the bedspread behind him, leaning back a little. And it’s true, Hinata is also chronically bad at voicing things sometimes, unless Tobio pokes him hard enough.

Hinata stays seated in Tobio’s lap, Popcorn still nestled safely in his palms. “Touché,” he mutters reluctantly with a tilt of his head.

“By the way though…” Hinata goes on to say after a moment, suddenly crowding into Tobio’s space and nudging gently at his chest.

Tobio frowns, confused, but obediently lies down flat on his back on the bed at Hinata’s urging. Before he can open his mouth and say anything, however, there’s a new, small weight on his sternum and he glances down into Popcorn’s eyes blinking back at him.

“She’s definitely _your_ cat,” Hinata says, flopping on his side next to Tobio, propping himself up on one elbow so he can look down at him.

“What’s that mean?”

“Well… she never purrs for me,” Hinata replies, shrugging his shoulder a little. He’s smiling though, so he doesn’t seem that bothered. As if to illustrate his point, he runs his fingertips lightly over her back – Popcorn allows the touch, but also doesn’t really move, just sits there looking vaguely disgruntled.

Hinata raises his hand and gestures for Tobio to try, and Tobio huffs, rolling his eyes but complying all the same. He reaches up with one large hand – the one without a plaster – and rests it gently across Popcorn’s back. His palm is still big enough to almost encapsulate her entirely.

Popcorn blinks at him, long and slow, and then slowly starts to rumble gently beneath his palm – her purrs just loud enough to shake her small body.

Hinata grins and lowers his head to kiss Tobio’s temple.

Tobio squirms a little, ridiculous happiness flooding him from the affection at both sources.

“I think you have grumpy comradery,” Hinata murmurs against his skin, eyes twinkling.

Tobio glances down at the kitten on his chest, who is just starting up curl up properly and go to sleep, and lets a smile spread wide. _I think maybe we both just needed a little understanding_ , he thinks, privately to himself, as he rubs his thumb over Popcorn’s body and tilts his head so he can kiss Hinata properly.

Outside, the brisk wind blows brown autumn leaves against the window panes, followed by the steady splatter of oncoming rain.

**Author's Note:**

> come yell at me on twitter! @Emlee_J


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